


Early Days

by Innin



Category: Stand Still Stay Silent
Genre: Accidental Soul Bonding, Blow Jobs, Dream Sex, M/M, Trust Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-24
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2018-06-02 16:47:34
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6574129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Innin/pseuds/Innin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reynir and Lalli begin figuring out one another. Not without mishaps along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Early Days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Moria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Moria/gifts).



> Much, much love to you. ♥

Reynir babbled, and he never shut up. 

Lalli had long since stopped listening to his reasons and apologies and all the waste of breath and words that tumbled out of Reynir's mouth. Reynir's voice was not, by itself, unpleasant to listen to, but he was where he wasn't supposed to be, and that made every word grate and fray away at Lalli's nerves like the screeching of a troll inside his head.

Reynir wasn't any less rude than the last time, or the time before, or the time before that, or all the times back all the way to before _that_ when Lalli called his vines to help and smacked him in the face for asking to enter the innermost part of Lalli's Haven. Even though he did not ask again to sit on the raft, he came _in_ again and again, and turned more and more annoying with each passing day. If it didn't mean involving Tuuri in matters she has no business knowing, Lalli would make her tell the medic to give Reynir something so their sleeping and waking times didn't overlap any more than they had to. 

Not that Tuuri, as a non-mage, had any business knowing mage things. Onni made very clear that she knew just enough to still keep her this side of safe. And Lalli didn't want to admit that he couldn't keep Reynir away. Not even to someone who'd understand, like Onni, whose advanced shields he marched right past as well, but his annoyance got the better of him at last. 

Onni told him to try and ignore him. 

So Reynir came slurfing in through the swamp like an oblivious klutz almost every morning when Lalli was done with scouting and decontamination and had made himself eat enough of the terrible breakfast to keep up his strength for the next night before he rolled under the bed to catch up on sleep.

It didn't help that he could understand Reynir, when in the real world he at least didn't have t deal with the shreds of meaning flying at him like shrapnel, anything from sheep shearing in Iceland to the procedural of peeling potatoes on the ship Reynir never should have gotten off of. And that was only after Reynir had bombarded him questions about magic, and ghosts, and poems - he meant runos, Lalli guessed - and owls, as if Reynir would be able to learn a Noita's skills, and Lalli hadn't even answered the questions he _could have_ answered.

Once after a particularly bad night of scouting that'd left Lalli crawling back by the skin of his teeth (as Tuuri put it, trust her to find the weirdest descriptions - he hadn't been _crawling_ at all, and if he had been then it'd have been on his hands and knees, not with his mouth in the dirt) Lalli even left his raft to head deeper into the forest and toward a higher patch of land where he rolled under a rock ledge hoping to hide from Reynir. He could not face the weird Icelander when even its innermost sanctuary was not enough to calm him. His Haven provided other spots for him when he needed them. That time, his lynx had shown him where to go, loping ahead of him away from the area Reynir usually intruded from, and then bringing dried grass and moss to turn their hiding place into a proper den before they crowded in together to sleep. 

At some point, his Luonto vanished back into invisibility with a hiss, curling tight into his chest. 

No wonder, when Lalli heard a happy bark behind him. Reynir had a dog. An ugly one. 

He'd been too annoyed and too tired to wonder if tracking also belonged to the repertoire of Icelandic magic or if that was Reynir's not-a-Luonto's special talent, and what other unfair advantages Reynir had over him in his own space. Reynir simply sat down with his back against the rock and started babbling as he'd done all those times and times before. 

It made Lalli wonder what he found in it, especially the talking without reply. He'd have to know by now that he wouldn't get a response. 

At least he didn't touch. At least he didn't bother Lalli any more than that. He seemed to understand that much, at least, instinctively. 

With a sigh, Lalli let him. If he tuned out the worst of the noise with his arms folded and pressed over his ears, it was a little like a stream of water gurgling over stones down from the heights and feeding from the raft pool into the dream sea. 

It wouldn't be all terrible if it didn't mean a stranger in his area. 

* * *

One day not that long after, Reynir failed to show up. He did that sometimes, when the waking world kept him away. Whatever he was doing, Lalli was grateful for the solitude. 

Or used to be. 

It was only when Lalli rolled over on his raft for the third time in some nervous fit he could not stop even when he pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes that he noticed he was sending the whole construction rocking. The water plinked along its edges. 

The reason was simple, and it was unsettling: it was too quiet. There was faint birdsong in the dream-distance, wind through the pines - and silence. 

It was disturbing, he told himself, only for the break in a now-expected routine that he had learned to cope with - badly. Even annoying as Reynir was, Lalli didn't _like_ changes in his routine if he had no time to get used to the idea first.

What was more disturbing was what it meant - that terrible Reynir had somehow made himself part of Lalli's routine in his sleep. There already was no escaping him in the waking world, him and the ridiculous, stupid, even dangerous braid that had smacked Lalli in the face more than once, the hair he shed everywhere, the obnoxious cheer that never seemed to run out and made Lalli want to shake him when he got underfoot again. 

Reynir always made Lalli want to shake him, since the very first glimpse of him, running _on top_ of the dream sea and away like it was ice with nothing dangerous underneath. 

He'd made Lalli want to shake him and break all his own rules. 

He'd made Lalli want to yell into his face: " _What in Tuonela are you?!_ What do you _want_?!"

Now Lalli wanted to shake him for being absent. He raked his fingernails down his arms. Something, anything, other than the silence. 

Maybe if he imagined Reynir -- _no_. 

Stupid. 

He turned away roughly from staring at the patch of swampy forest Reynir usually came stomping through. 

Or - hadn't been staring. He wasn't looking for him. There was some perfectly normal reason Reynir hadn't come.

Stupid.

Lalli yanked his cloak around himself. The raft tipped under the sudden movement.

Lalli slipped. 

The water closed over his head in a rush of bubbles. 

_Stupid._

* * * 

Some things in dreams demanded recompense in the waking world. 

A rush of soapy bubbles burned in his eyes and dirt and sand and suds clung to his lips. Lalli spat out again into the puddle gathering under his feet. 

"Listen, Lalli, _please_ , Reynir said he was sorry. We were trying to help Mikkel clean, and if you hadn't thrashed around like you were drowning and tripped him from under the bed while he was carrying that bucket…" Tuuri was wringing her hands around the broom she was holding like around a very skinny neck, and Reynir stood like a bedraggled and very tall dog next to her. 

"It's not my fault! He poured the dirt water over me!" 

"It's just something that happened, Lalli, stop being cross! Mikkel is already getting the bath ready for you, and you can clean yourself up while Reynir dries up this. You'll be back asleep before Sigrun gets back with kitty and Emil." 

"Don't care." 

Reynir said something to Tuuri. He didn't have to be a genius to work out that Lalli had enough of him, but then the bedraggled look lifted and he bent down to say something that was probably meant to sound apologetic. 

And he put his stupid Icelandic hand on Lalli's shoulder. 

Lalli could think of a million things to do to him for touching him without his permission. Break his fingers. Headbutt him in the face. Hiss, bite, scratch, spit, yell, run.

Instead he grabbed Reynir's face with both hands and pulled him down and kissed him, pressed his lips down firm. If Reynir could march into his area every day and sit there weird as he pleased and find nothing wrong with all the talking inside Lalli's own space, his own dream, his sanctuary that he wasn't sharing with anyone except himself, then Lalli - 

He faintly heard Tuuri gasp. "Lalli, what - ?" 

\- Lalli could do the same to him. The same weirdness and the same rudeness and the same invasion, and then Reynir could see how he liked _that_ , how he liked when someone laid claim to him, and then maybe Reynir would leave him _alone_. 

He hadn't expected what Reynir would do. That he would do anything. Or _could_. He was wrong.

Something cold and solid and magic slammed into his chest and sent him flying backward.

Tuuri shrieked. Lalli crashed into the wall. 

The world went black. 

* * *

"... first time that happened was when the ghosts came to eat us, and then Onni came and helped, except it wasn't Onni. It was an owl fylgja, no, what did Tuuri call them - but it was _also_ Onni. I don't really know how anything works yet, but I guess it's what happens when I get scared enough, and you really scared me. Except maybe - maybe I also scared myself because you're a terrible kisser and I liked it anyway, I just hadn't expected it to happen so quickly?" Reynir chuckled to himself. "Heh, no, I hadn't. Because you know, on the farm back home we have some feral cats, and if you stick around them for long enough and let them get used to your presence and talk to them so they get used to your voice - it doesn't actually matter what you say, as long as you're calm - they'll come down from the hayloft eventually and start trusting you. It builds a connection. And at home it's always good to have another cat around, even if they're probably C-grade, not like Grettir and Snúdur - that's our A-grade toms, we mostly keep them in the house since none of us there are immune, except for some of the farm hands and my siblings, but they're away on assignments for most of the time anyway, and - well, I thought it was working, since you - " 

A break, finally. Lalli was half-resolving to keep his head down on the planks of his raft and keep his eyes closed, but something must have given him away because Reynir's chatter started up again. 

He hated it. He wanted it to go away.

At least it was no longer so quiet. 

"Lalli, are you awake? Lalli, I'm sorry, I - I - did you see? I did magic! Even if I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to hit you with my rune, I guess I just panicked and it kind of worked on instinct, but if you want to try again then maybe - "

Lalli's head was hammering with pain, and he sat up carefully, winced at the bright light through the treetops, which dimmed when he told it to. Reynir stared up at the pines. "Did you just make it go darker? I guess that's okay, if it's not some -" 

He scooped up a handful of water from the pool, drank. Better. Reynir was watching him perched on the side of the pool with his stupidly long legs drawn up until under his chin.

"How did you get here so quickly?!" 

" _You're talking to me_!" If he jumped up on the wooden rim of Lalli's pool as excitedly as he sometimes did and as he sounded that moment, maybe Lalli would get to see _him_ take a bath. But he sobered again, even if he still grinned that weird grin of his.

"I think Tuuri got scared and knocked me out with her broom from behind, I'm not sure. I guess my magic was only directed at you, not everywhere. But she hit me with _something_ , I don't know exactly what it was, and when I woke up - or - fell asleep, I guess, I saw you from across and came to check on you and to apologize if you were awake, because my head hurts like a sheep kicked me in the brain. Does your head hurt - did I hurt you? I hope I didn't hurt you. I didn't mean --" 

Lalli stared at him. 

"Stop talking if you don't want me to kiss you again." 

"I - what? Do you _want_ to kiss me again? I thought you hated me! That's why I was doing this, to make you hate me less! I think we could be great! I really like you, even if you're always so -- you." 

"But I don't like you! You're rude and you don't even know it, and you keep coming here and messing with my sleep! You're sitting inside my head right now!" He pointed, aiming nowhere in particular. It was his Haven. It didn't matter where he pointed. "This is in my head! Everything! You're! In! My! Head! You don't get to be here! What _do_ you know?!" 

Reynir's face fell and he climbed to his feet. "All right, I get it. It's like the first time. At least you didn't hit me with a plant this time. I'm really sorry. I didn't know that." Reynir stopped before stepping off the plank, and half-turned around to Lalli. "Good night, I guess, or - good day. Since it's day out there."

It _could not_ be so absurdly easy to get him to leave. Not after all the times he'd tried and failed to make Reynir go away and was met with his weird patience and persistence.

The thought that stabbed into Lalli's brain like a knife immediately after: If he left, it would be quiet again. 

And if Reynir left in the state he was in, he would be easy prey for the creatures under the dream sea; he had probably only barely escaped them the first time, and defense? Onni had told him that Icelandic mages were mostly defenseless. If Reynir had been at that Icelandic academy at all, he hadn't learned anything at all, if they could teach magic there to begin with. Magic from a classroom would have to be weak, and worse than that, tame. Everyone knew that magic had to be taught through doing, out in the forest, with someone experienced to trust, not through tests and books.

If he found a reason why Reynir might stay - 

"Tuuri hits hard when she's scared. She gave Onni a concussion once. She probably gave you one. You shouldn't cross again out there right now. You're weak right now. Even weaker than usual. And Onni said it wasn't safe." 

"But - you just told me to leave? Do you want me to leave? I can't leave without crossing the starry place. And it's usually just a few steps, so -" 

"That's enough. You don't know what's out there. You'll have to stay here until you wake up. Or wake up now if you can. I don't think so." 

Lalli hoped it was enough to deter Reynir. He was _not_ going to tell Reynir about It. Never. 

But Lalli could trust his Haven to provide what he needed.

He pointed at a space between the trees that had, perhaps, not been there in that shape before. It wasn't the stretch of highland that he'd hidden in the first time, but it was dry, with blueberries in first flower and heather shrubs, and not so close that Reynir would bother him as much. And he'd still be company. 

The thought made Lalli hiss through his teeth. 

It was just his luck that Reynir had wormed himself into some connection between them. Spending that much time together, and Reynir talking through almost all of it, it was bound to do --- _something_. As Reynir had said about his cats, although neither of them had known just what had been happening. Lalli had heard of mages - married mages, who'd married other mages - taking shelter together that way, sometimes even so much that their Havens merged into something new, but he hadn't thought that it might happen with an Icelandic mage. Their magic was different. 

But perhaps it couldn't be helped, as little as it could be helped that Lalli had magic.

Grandmother Taika had taught him that when he was a boy. He hadn't wanted magic, but it wasn't a choice he could make. He would have to learn to live with it as best he could. It couldn't be helped, she had said to him, but it could be wonderful if he learned to master it.

Perhaps it couldn't be helped either that he wanted -- that he wanted Reynir close. 

And didn't. 

And he still was furious with him. 

If he'd had any choice in the matter, he might have picked Emil, even though he was a Swedish heathen and not a mage. Emil was his friend. Or he might just have picked no one at all - that seemed best - but not a weird Icelander. 

Reynir was staring at his fingers. 

"It's my Haven. And my rules. Don't _talk_. You can sleep over there." Lalli pointed at the small clearing.

"Thank you!" To Lalli's bafflement, Reynir went cheerfully, bunched up his blue-and-white coat for a pillow, and curled himself into a question mark on the ground. He was trying very hard to stay still, Lalli could see it in the way his body tensed. Sometimes he lifted his head and opened his mouth as if to talk, and then thought better of it. It looked nothing if not pathetic, and after a while he heard Reynir sigh deeply, and his clothes rustled when he sat up again. 

"Would you - I mean. Would you make good on what you said? I can't sleep. I think that might help." 

"I said I would if you don't shut up." 

A slow grin spread over Reynir's face, the kind that made Lalli want to bite him, and not in the way that Reynir was imagining. Reynir was a person who liked kissing. Who liked Lalli kissing him. 

If Lalli had had no other reason to believe that Reynir was weird - and he had many of those, almost too many - this was enough to know that Reynir was _weird_. 

"Then I best start talking, because maybe if I do then you're going to have to kiss me quiet. Did you know I'm actually sort of famous for kissing at home? I won a kissing contest once, at a Réttirball a few years ago. Fura - that's my sister - was so jealous she didn't talk to me for a _week_! And then she only started again because she couldn't keep being mean with me before her next assignment. She's a Cleanser, you know, like Emil, and she goes abroad all the time, and there's always a risk she won't be coming back in one piece, so she stopped brooding and apolog- " 

Lalli was over in Reynir's spot in a leap or two. He'd show Reynir what a terrible kisser he was, remembered what he'd learned watching Tuuri and Ieva sometimes when he was spying on them on Onni's orders. He had a good memory, after all, and they both seemed like they'd liked what they'd been doing.

 _Hands._ He knelt on the moss by Reynir. Worked up the resolution to touch, palm to palm. 

When Reynir's fingers folded between his own, it was… it was all right. 

Weird. Not terrible. 

_Face_. Eyes. Reynir's eyes were large and the shade of green of new pine shoots, and there were freckles even on his eyelids when he blinked; it was as ridiculous as Reynir himself was, and the stupid, beaming smile he gave Lalli. 

"You don't have to stare at me like that, it's making me think there is a bug sitting on my nose. Is there a bug sitting on my -- _mmmphf_?" 

Lalli pressed his lips down and held them there. Reynir had wanted this, he'd said.

 _Kissing._ Normal people kissed with their eyes closed, Lalli knew that. But Reynir wasn't _normal_ , he was weird, and Lalli couldn't, he couldn't trust that there wouldn't be another rune that'd slam him into a tree, or a rock, or into the water, this time. 

Reynir's eyes slipped shut and stayed that way. There were more freckles there. He melted forward, into the kiss, his lips working against Lalli's. Gently and easy, like water lapping, working the tension out of Lalli. 

Lalli began to wonder when it would get boring. 

Reynir continued, for quite a while. There were pauses when Reynir would draw back and grin at him, and breathe deeply while there was a flush beginning to spread over his cheeks toward the bridge of his nose, and for once he didn't seem to want to talk. 

With him there the silence wasn't quite so unnerving, Lalli found, the next time Reynir kissed him again - of course that was when Reynir began talking while he kissed.

Lalli hadn't known that was something people did, and he almost rocked back. Almost. 

He didn't quite want it to stop, so he held himself in place. At least Reynir's voice was muffled now. 

"You don't have to be so tense. You're doing really nice. It's nice kissing you. I mean, it's mostly me kissing you, you're not really kissing back, but --" Reynir laughed, low in his throat. "That's okay." He sounded happy.

 _"How -- ?"_ Lalli said. He was not sure what he was asking.

"How do you kiss me back, is that what you mean? I'm sorry, maybe it means something different in your language and it's not translating right. I think there is still a language barrier and we just don't notice it here? But I heard that some things don't - there aren't words for the ideas in other languages. Although I don't think 'how' is one of them, really." 

Lalli muttered against his lips. 

"I guess you could just follow my lead? If you like - you know, people use their tongues, too, we could try that. Or -" 

"I'll bite it off if you put your tongue in my mouth." 

Reynir drew back. His eyes looked uncertain. "I - I - I - no, please don't. I mean. Some people like biting, but not biting biting. Not to hurt. Unless they like it and agreed they'd do it. I think Sigrun would like biting, but - I don't like pain. That one time a sheep bit me, it was terrible."

Reynir was flustered now, Lalli could tell. He was pleased, and the idea of a sheep - he pressed his lips down. A little more like Reynir had done. He couldn't help smiling, almost laughing, but Reynir didn't have to _see_ it. _A sheep._

Reynir's lips opened under his, a little. He made a soft noise.

Lalli stopped. Froze. 

"I _will_ bite it off." A warning, even if he might not bite it off. He might just bite carefully, if Reynir decided he wanted to be stupid and did it after all. 

Tongues were disgusting. Other people's tongues. His own was fine, and Reynir's probably was fine as long as he kept it where it belonged, rather than in Lalli's mouth. 

"Maybe we can stop with the kissing? I really don't want you to bite me. I think it's getting really warm here, anyway. Do you mind if I take my clothes off? We could do other things that way." 

Lalli shrugged. He had seen plenty of people without their clothes on in the sauna, and no one was bothered by it in Keuruu, no matter how anyone looked underneath their uniforms. He didn't think there would be anything special about Reynir either, and if there were, it would probably not make him any weirder than he already was. And if it was getting warm in Lalli's Haven, then it was getting warm because Lalli himself was starting to feel warm. 

Not warm like summer - summer was the worst season - but he liked this kind of warmth.

Reynir eyed him for a moment, as if unsure what to make of the shrug. Lalli shrugged again. 

He seemed to decide it was just as well, began pulling his clothes off. The flush Lalli had noticed before had spread down Reynir's throat and to the freckles on his chest. It stood out like one of the emergency alarms on the Keuruu walls when they flashed against a pale sky, and Lalli felt a little like he did in those moments. 

The alarms flashing meant focus, not fear, and although he'd caught Onni looking like he'd cry when those things happened - even if they were only drills and Onni knew it - Lalli liked how grounded they made him feel. Almost like going out into the forest at night where he could be dead in a matter of minutes if he didn't focus. 

He could focus when he had to. Or wanted to. 

He found that he wanted to.

It was harder focusing away from something that commanded his attention; his every instinct went against that - and Reynir had managed that. Was managing that, still. 

He -- _wanted_. 

He'd learned to let magic happen. Maybe he could let this happen too. 

And just then, Reynir freed his hands from Lalli's, wiped them off on the moss, tilted his head, smiled. 

Something in Lalli's stomach -- fluttered? 

Yes. It fluttered. 

Reynir didn't notice.

"I'm sorry, they were kind of sweaty. I don't want to touch you all over with sweaty hands, but it probably doesn't really matter since… we'll probably be at least a little sweaty ourselves if -- you would like? If you want to?" 

" -- to be _sweaty_? Why?"

"It's… it's what happens when you do more than kissing. Usually." Reynir said, and the laugh that came after was weird and a little breathless. His blush deepened, and he gestured at his own chest, where sweat was gathering in a thin sheen. Lalli didn't find it strange. He knew how bodies worked, even in the dreamspace - and the reason they existed in the first place. Not that that mattered much with him and Reynir. 

Like Reynir's kissing contest and Reynir liking kissing, it was weird to think that he found it worthwhile at all. 

Weird. Still not terrible.

"Okay," Lalli said, in face of Reynir's considering look, the way his head tilted. The way it looked, he was too mesmerized by Lalli's agreement to even say anything in response.

He moved closer and crossed the space between them with a murmur, and something shifted then, when Reynir went to touch his hand to the back of Lalli's head, helped him halfway down so Lalli rested on his back, and his elbows were sinking into the moss. 

It was easier than Lalli liked to admit to let Reynir take the lead. 

Let his own eyes shut - halfway. A little. 

Reynir's hand came down to tug on his tunic, the other one undid the clasp of his cloak until the fur slipped off his shoulders to the ground with a rustle. Reynir paused, looked at him with a half-smile on his lips.

"If it's too much… "

"I'll bite." 

"No! Please no biting! You're not a sheep!" Reynir laughed in a way that made his eyes slip shut, dipped his head. "You aren't a sheep, right? Not - not your… Luonni? Was that what you called it?"

"Luonto. It means 'nature'. It's part of the soul. Onni is just my cousin."

"And Tuuri. But I know Tuuri." 

Weird Icelander. Tuuri had nothing to do with this at all. Onni hadn't either, but his name had been in that word, at least. Reynir didn't look like he cared, and he stretched out along Lalli so their faces were close together. Their noses almost touched; Lalli felt a little bit of cool air on his face when Reynir breathed. 

He liked it better than kissing.

It was getting very warm in his Haven now. Lalli was beginning to feel very warm.

Reynir's hand lay on Lalli's chest now. Not much of a weight, but solid, like the ground under his feet when he ran. He breathed under it a few times, in and out, nodded. 

"Okay." 

Reynir moved on, ran the hand over Lalli's tunic. Middle of his chest, to his belt, over his hip opened the buckle on the side. The knife dragged it down into the grass. Lalli had forgotten it was there, at least today. His over-tunic fell open, he shrugged his arms out of it. 

Better. A little cooler. He breathed, nodded at Reynir, and found he didn't _want_ to object. Some weird, impossible Icelandic magic. Or maybe just touch. Reynir couldn't do magic yet, after all, except for his odd runes. 

Lalli doubted runes could cause what Reynir was doing.

Reynir kept touching him. He had a steady hand, guiding and testing and noting when Lalli moved in or drew back from under his fingers - not the sides; it tickled and Lalli didn't like the way his ribs stuck out even under the plain brown undertunic. Everyone always said he was too skinny.

It wasn't a good spot for touching, and Reynir didn't - like he knew that was a rule.

Maybe he wasn't so weird after all, or so obnoxious. Lalli breathed out. Swalllowed the noise that wanted out.

Even when he touched elsewhere, steadily further down, and Lalli thought his head was going to burst - not from the pain, that had gone away sometime, or had stopped mattering, and rather the pulse and heat of his Haven - but when Reynir helped Lalli out of the undertunic - brief dark as it went over Lalli's head and then was tossed aside - palm to skin, slowly rubbing circles over his chest and stomach downwards, staying there for a while with his head half-titled like that dog of his, as if he wasn't sure whether or not Lalli liked it, how long he'd abide that touch, it wasn't all that weird. 

Lalli let him. Mulled over the trails of heat that touch caused, the rush of having Reynir's fingers pressing into his skin with nothing as a barrier. Closed his eyes. 

Relaxed.

His Haven. His rules. And Reynir was playing by them. Hadn't broken any of them yet.

Of course his body reacted to that. It was normal for bodies, natural. 

It wasn't something Lalli dealt with often. Sometimes when sleep wouldn't come, or the exhaustion after scouting wasn't enough to drag him down. Not often. But he knew what to do, and what Reynir could do. 

Because now Reynir was nervous, flustered as if touching Lalli below was something strange; he let his hand rest on Lalli's leg. Hadn't even helped him from his boots and leggings. 

Lalli opened his eyes again.

"You can --" 

"-- I can? Oh, good. Because I wasn't sure if you would like that, it's - well, we're going kind of quick, but if you like… that's nice. It's nice. Yeah." 

Even Reynir's babbling was a little muted now. Sounded a little like a brook again even though their faces were close now, not like the time Lalli hadn't wanted to listen to him at all and blocked him out. Now the sounds were a little hollow-echoing in his ears all of their own. 

"Pshaw. It's okay."

His own voice came dim. Breathless, though not the way he was after scouting. Reynir helped him lie back all the way until his head lay on Reynir's bunched-up cloak that smelled of him even in the dream-world. Kicked his boots off, with a bit of struggling to get out of them. Reynir's fingers went over his middle, straight down. Not far. Curled over his leggings, hot even through the fabric still in between. Lalli lifted his hips. Reynir laughed, pulled away all the rest of Lalli's clothes, bared him all the way. 

Lalli was glad there were no insects in his Haven. It was summer-warm now, and summer meant midges, crawling, flying, stinging in millions. Almost worse than trolls. Worse than them in their own way.

"I didn't know you'd be so eager for this. Though really, it took a long time to get you to trust me, so maybe it isn't so strange after all."

It relieved the pressure, a little. It helped, a little, to make the feeling less urgent, ease up the chafing of his clothes. Reynir could touch him now. 

Instead Reynir shifted. He'd not been lying very still with the undressing, but he'd come back to peer into Lalli's face every now and then, laugh a little when Lalli didn't say anything, just looked. Followed him with his eyes. 

It was clear where he looked. 

"Can I - have you ever… I mean, it's - a little like kissing, except - not on your mouth." Reynir gestured. Licked his lips, the pink tip of his tongue peeking out. 

Lalli hadn't done that before. He didn't _like_ kissing, still, no matter where on his body. But he'd heard about it sometimes when other scouts filed into headquarters, some in pairs and groups talking together and laughing or bragging in ways that made Lalli tune out what they were saying. Only when his neighbours on either side of his own room in the barracks had visitors over the day, made noise, had kept him from sleeping, he listened in. Sometimes they talked about the sex they had had. 

It seemed liked they liked it. He could always tell Reynir no if it wasn't true. They might only have wanted to make themselves seem important, or talented. They weren't, not often, when it came to other things.

"Okay. You can." 

No point in saying more. Reynir was waiting for him to say something, it looked, and he'd only interrupt Lalli again anyway. No point in wasting more words. 

"Okay? Okay! Good, I'll… I'm good at this, I think! I mean, was. When - " 

It was weird that Lalli could believe it. From Reynir it didn't seem like bragging, but Lalli didn't want to know. He'd had enough of waiting. 

"Okay." He spread his legs so Reynir could kneel.

It seemed Reynir had been waiting, too. He grinned, laughed briefly, tilted his head at Lalli as if there was something strange about him, but his eyes were very bright, almost lit-up with eagerness.

Bent his head. Breathed through his open mouth. Glanced up. Dipped his head down. 

Lalli thought he'd die. 

Thought of the time the troll had pulled him under the dream sea, while Reynir ran above. I'd been the same sort of burning in his chest then, when he finally breathed again, and Reynir moved back, opened his lips, un-hollowed his cheeks. A trail of spit hung from the corner of his mouth and he wiped it off with the back of his hand, grimaced.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, if you - we don't have to, okay? Too quick?"

"No - _good_. Okay. Again?" 

Lalli didn't trust his voice. But he knew what it felt like now. Could prepare for - 

Reynir's lips and tongue. Could imagine it wasn't Reynir's tongue that felt so good. 

Slower this time. 

And Reynir took his time.

Slowly up and down, slowly kissing, swirling, until Lalli squirmed and bit down hard on his hand when his head went far more empty than it should, when it grew hotter like the sun beating down onto his face through glass. 

Once he felt Reynir's hair between his fingers. Held on. Held down. 

Heard Reynir cough wetly, let go, tried to breathe. He knew how to breathe. It wasn't much use. 

Reynir came back. Swallowed him down in one long motion and held him down with an arm over his hips and laughed, sending vibrations through him. 

Said something with his mouth full that Lalli could not understand _at all_ , but it was enough to blank out the world for a moment and send the trees above him shaking. 

Waited until it calmed. Breathed. Reached for Reynir. 

* * * 

"I'm sorry, I didn't even finish my story earlier, before we got all carried away - I was talking about my sister, and I bet she would be cross if I just didn't finish the story. Maybe it's my only chance, if you don't want me to come back? So like I was saying, she stopped brooding and apologized, though only the moment before she boarded the carriage to Reykjavík and…" 

Lalli sighed. It was early days with Reynir, but one thing was abundantly clear. 

Reynir babbled, and he would never shut up. 

Lalli lay in silence, listening, until he felt the pull of waking on his mind.

"Reynir. Come back. Sometimes."

He didn't mind so much any more.


End file.
